This is the most common and very distressing experience many people have when they first see themselves in a True Mirror. More than half of all people feel this way! The recent article in Man Repeller magazine is a perfect example of so many seeing themselves as so much more crooked. And yet, when they looked at each other, no one felt that way about anyone else.
Actually you probably are asymmetric – everyone really is – but not to the degree that you are perceiving in the True Mirror. Your brain has to rewire to get your symmetry back to what you are used to in mirrors. Here is why…
Say your nose tilts one degree to the right. That is pretty small really, almost straight. But in the True Mirror, you are actually seeing it going to the right for the first time, because in your mirror reflection it tilts to the left. Because it is tilting in the opposite direction, it appears to be two degrees from what you used to think was straight!
Plus, if you tilt your whole head one way or the other (which we all do), in a flat mirror you see your head tilting in the same direction, and everything lines up. But in a True Mirror, you see your head tilting in the other direction, and usually only your dominant eye lines up…the other side feels like it is totally skewed up or down from what you expect. Like as if you are a Picasso painting! Again, this is a perception that isn’t real. You can minimize it by keeping your eyes as horizontal as possible.
To get a sense of what your asymmetry actually is and what the world perceives, just look back at the standard mirror (either of the side panels will work). Whatever asymmetry you can perceive there is the same degree that we would perceive. Only you have this strange contrast between a backwards and forwards version of you, we only see your forwards face.
But to really see the value of the True Mirror (we don’t do this just to freak you out, honest!), you have to also relax that “AACCKK” expression and try to look and behave normally. It helps look in the True Mirror together with a friend, so that when you start communicating eye to eye, your face can come alive with normal expressions. Which, by the way, are often quite asymmetric, since our brain is pulling at our facial features in different ways based on what we are actually saying.
Ultimately, asymmetry isn’t what people see when they look at you. They look in your eyes and read what is there, what and how your face expresses your thoughts, emotions and unique personality. This is the point of the True Mirror – showing you the “real you” that other people see. This is what we know and love about each other. Much of that simply doesn’t reflect properly when we see ourselves in mirrors because the flip changes our essential nature, giving us a somewhat inauthentic version of ourselves to know. It’s very possible that this could be the source of so many of the self-image issues that confound many of us throughout our lives.
Harrison Ford in real life
Look at this very asymmetric picture of Harrison Ford to the right…you can see the charm in his smile when it is the true image, but when you flip it, shown below, you can see how weird that smile looks. This is what he sees in every mirror! How strange!
Harrison Ford reversed in a mirror
Give the True Mirror a chance to show you your real version of yourself. Look in your eyes and ask who, what and how you really are, check yourself out with natural expressions like your smile, and that AACKness will fade away, replaced with the magical qualities of you being a true and real human being!
